Modern Society has grown to be heavily dependent on telecommunications and, hence, intolerant to service degradation or temporary service disruption. Telecommunications networks are dynamic systems that need be adapted to accommodate temporal and spatial variation of traffic demand. The increasing versatility of network-elements motivates structural changes and the introduction of new services which, in turn, influence the volume and distribution of traffic.
In its simplest form, a telecommunications network comprises nodes interconnected by links. A node may be a traditional switching node handling rigid connections, a packet router handling irregular packet streams, or a versatile router-switch handling both connections and irregular packet streams. A node may support a large number of traffic sources and sinks and due to the typical non-uniformity of source-sink traffic patterns the placement of nodes is a major network-design consideration. The nodal layout and inter-nodal connectivity have a significant effect on the efficiency, reliability, and overall performance of a network.
An accurate image of a network's layout is of paramount importance in resolving service disruption as well as in planning network enhancement. The layout of a rapidly changing network is difficult to determine by manual means. As the number of nodes increases, the number of alternative inter-nodal connection patterns increases rendering network-design rather challenging. Detecting, diagnosing and correcting localized malfunctions also become more intricate as the number of interconnected nodes increases.
In addition to real-time control, there is a need for a comprehensive and efficient network design and provisioning system. Conventional network-planning systems are semi-automated, fragmented, strenuous, and inefficient, and may not be adequate for modern fast-changing networks. Over the past four decades, analytical network design models had been developed and mechanized in software tools. Such tools rely heavily on acquisition of accurate traffic-demand data, which can be determined from operational measurements provided at the switching nodes. For provisioning an existing network, a description of a current-connectivity of the network is needed. The traffic-demand data, together with the current network-connectivity data, specified routing rules, and objective performance indices are used to determine the need, or otherwise, of new links or link-capacity changes. With the fast pace of modern-network evolution, the network-planning process need be revisited.
There is therefore a need for effective automated means for real-time network monitoring and analysis to expedite diagnostics and trouble-shooting and, hence, ensure service quality and continuity. Such means may also be exploited to influence long-term network structure and operation.